Totally wrong. What I find is that no one has taken the time to understand my question and write a pertinent reply.

 

Fist thing I would do is get an accurate clutch life checked. Of your clutch is in order, have the adaptions cleared with AMDS and a proper clutch bed in procedure. Then have transmission tuning from Velocity installed. Seeing how your 200mi. Away drop it off and have them do it all in 1 visit.
-JW

 

 

J doubleU, thanks for the info and suggestions! The car has been driven about 3,000 miles since the last clutch read, half of it the 1400 mile trip home, all freeway. At the time of the last service, it was halfway between what I have read about the clutch data (1900ish new, 1300ish worn out). I have a Foxwell code reader on the way that can display the clutch data points. I will obviously be tracking that pretty closely.

Clearing the adaptations sounds like a good idea. Not sure if it needs a clutch bedding procedure - the actual shifts are better than I was expecting, having read or watched so many critical comments. My honest reaction is how could a dual plate make a huge improvement over what I'm experiencing. Even in D, the shifts aren't bad. I had noticed on the build sheet that the car got a clutch upgrade: AFTER PRODUCTION CHANGES 8080s clutch material / Keep Sport Mode. A little research identified 8080s as a "premium" clutch friction material from LUK.

I've already been in contact with Velocity, but our weather will be turning soon up here, so I probably won't visit them until spring. Their proximity to Area 27 is tempting. This is my old hobby:

 

I have a 2012 Vantage S and I will often put it in "D" while stuck in traffic on the highway

I've not really experienced abrupt gear changes, not unprovoked acceleration.

When wanting to speed up, it often takes a second to understand the extent of throttle input and languidly downshifts if I've pressed it enough to indicate I'm trying to overtake someone.

With little input to simply gain a few MPH, it meanders to the correct speed.

I do, however have the VAP tune on the car.

My advice would be to get the clutch life validated, and give it a drive with varying amounts of throttle input to see if you can get consistent results.

Sorry you're dealing with this, and experiencing some frustrations with responses.
Feel free to DM me if you have specific questions for the V8VS.

 

So one guy asks a question and "no one" (i.e. all of the multiple responders) has taken the time to understand it?

The replies aren't "pertinent" sounds an awful lot like you don't like them. Or is it because you already know what is and isn't pertinent ("Go back and read the first post. My questions were about D, and only D. Any reply about paddles completely missed the point"), which then begs the question why you are asking for help in the first place?

You've selectively ignored at least one question back to you (re: whether the car behaves like this in manual mode).

You've selectively ignored/failed to acknowledge at least one suggestion that your car is probably not exhibiting normal behaviour.

OK, got it. Best of luck with your car.

 

Sorry that not responding to a question about a behavior that cannot happen has bothered any of you. The only time the computer downshifts when in manual mode is when coming to a stop. It NEVER downshifts at speed when in manual mode. It was so obvious, I didn't think I needed to answer that one and draw attention to the person asking it, which of course, you have now done.

Any suggestion, question or comment about manual mode (and there were a LOT of them) cannot possibly help solve a problem that only occurs when in D mode. Manual mode shift decisions are made by the driver. D mode shift decisions are made by the computer. Ergo, 100% not pertinent, 100% of the time.

I got an excellent question from a Facebook group: was I climbing when the car went gonzo? Almost certainly yes. It happened in southern OR, which is almost all ups and downs, and most passing situations occurred when I was ascending hills/mountains. The car already was under more load than on level ground or when descending, so just a bit more throttle could easily trigger a more aggressive downshift and acceleration. That seems to fit. Another great Facebook suggestion: clear all of the "learned" transaxle data.

That was the sort of stuff I expected from a well established forum. The info in the older threads is a gold mine for a new Aston owner, and I was expecting similarly inciteful responses. I hardly ever have gotten better info from Facebook than a dedicated forum, but I guess times, they are a changing.

Batman - thanks for your post. You are the second owner to suggest getting VAP tunes. Maybe next spring (the car will be put in storage by the end of October, if not sooner).

 

Just chiming in with my support for the SSII 'box. I drove both manuals and SSII's when I was assessing what Vantage to get and was almost on the point of buying a manual but I couldn't get the 7 gears and paddles out of my mind; plus being 6' 4" with a 36" inside leg the clutch pedal on a Vantage is not ideally placed and the bite point is very high. So I tried a few more cars to scratch the paddles itch, read about how to drive a SportShift and eventually went that way - a 4.7 non-S SSII Coupe.

Not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs but the "D" on the selector button stands for "Don't press this" ; drive it on the paddles. The car will back off the timing to reduce power and allow the shift if you just pull the paddle, but that will often give a change that makes the passenger's head nod - if you practice just lifting off the throttle a tad as you change yourself you can get seamless changes. At light throttle and low speed you can just pull the paddles, but if you're starting to accelerate with purpose then a slight lift is required. To me this actually enhances the experience as it requires thought and practice to get the shift right - as it does with a manual. You have to remember that this is not a twin-clutch 'box with those machine-gun shifts; the hydraulics behind you are depressing a big, single-plate clutch, shifting gears and re-engaging the clutch - this takes time.

Low speeds (car park manoeuvring under about 6 mph) at can be tricky - the car can often get itself into transmission "shunt" that makes it look like you're a learner as you kangaroo forward. Again, the key is to be aware that the car has its idiosyncrasies and feather the throttle until you're rolling. The sharper throttle response in "Sport" can make controlling the shunting worse so in the early days I used to come out of "Sport" until I was on the road, but now with practice it's fine, although even now if I'm sloppy the car will punish/embarrass me.

The SS 'box will automatically shift down when the revs drop below the engines operating zone, which means you can leave the 'box to sort itself out and automatically shift down the gears as you come to a halt, BUT be aware that, say at a roundabout, if you suddenly see and go for a gap just as the car decides to downshift you can be stranded with the car between gears and a boot-full of throttle, followed by a late lurch forward after the gap has nearly closed - exciting, and not in a good way! This is particularly true of the shift down into 1st, so if I'm approaching a junction (or a speed hump) I shift down to 1st myself, so the car's ready.

You don't need to go through sequential gears with the SSII - if you want to shift from 5th to 3rd as you approach a bend all you do is the pull the LH paddle back quickly twice; the car will shift from 5th to 3rd without going through 4th. I use this all the time, (and, depending on revs/speed, the car will often throw in a rev-matching throttle blip for good measure - nice! ). Pull the paddle three times and the car will skip two gears, and so on. This also works the other way as well; if you've booted the car off the lights or during an overtake and now you just want to cruise at the speed you're at, pull the RH paddle quickly 2 (or even 3) times and the car will go straight from 3rd to 5th or 6th. The 'box will refuse to shift if you ask for a gear outside the engine's rev range, so you can pull the LH paddle as often as you like and you won't get a "money shift".

The SSII will not do a "safety change" for you at max revs - the gear indicator will turn red as you approach redline and then, if you don't shift, the engine will just bounce off the rev limiter until you do. I believe the SSI when not in "Sport" would shift automatically at close to max revs - the SSII will not.

The changes of the SSII are sharper when in "Sport" mode and I prefer these shifts. To be honest I know about the "Hyper-shift" when you're at full throttle and above 5,500 rpm but I've rarely used it on UK roads and, on the odd occasion when I have, I'm too focussed on the world travelling backwards at warp speed to notice the shift quality.

I hope this helps and apologies to those I've bored. As you can probably tell, I like the SSII box. I will admit that there are the odd occasions when I'd quite like the ZF 8-speeder out of the new Vantage so I could just put it in "D" if I'm in traffic, like I do with the daily Volvo. I must be getting old.



Couple of things I forgot. The SSII has a "hill hold" feature that is very useful. If you come to a stop on an uphill gradient that's steep enough, when you apply the footbrake the gear selector shows a red "H" and the car will hold the brakes on so you can move your right foot to the throttle and then drive off without rolling back - very useful and saves hauling on the handbrake.

If you do take the SSII plunge always let the gearbox do the "clutch learning" before you engage gear at startup, with the red LED in the "N" button flashing until it's done, . I always start the car, stow my phone in the centre console then put on my seatbelt, shuffle about to get comfortable and, by the time this ritual is over, the LED has stopped flashing and the gearbox is ready.

 

Well, I'm no mechanic but based on your initial description I can envisage a couple of scenarios that might indeed be pertinent to driving in manual mode:

- presumably, while in 'D' mode the car decides when to downshift based on multiple parameters that would include throttle position. In the event there was something wrong with your throttle position sensing, that might cause inconsistent/uneven acceleration in 'D' (potentially causing inconsistent downshifting) but also in manual mode (which would manifest just as different levels of acceleration without the downshifting; hence my initial question that you have decided to sh*t all over).
- also, if your clutch was slipping, that would possibly cause inconsistent/uneven acceleration in both 'D' or manual mode (again with possible, inconsistent downshifting only in 'D' mode).

I'm sure we're all terribly sorry that you didn't get what you were looking for from our well established forum. But you see, we're all just imbeciles here, so a humble, pleasant fellow like you would be much better off at Facebook.

As for "inciteful" responses, it seems we did indeed incite in you some additional "road rage". Your conduct here with 10 posts under your belt has been quite insightful.

Funny how you deem a suggestion to get a VAP tune praiseworthy, although with apologies to Batman I would hardly consider it "pertinent" to the issue you described.

 

EDVTEK - thanks for the Hillhold comment. I was still at the stage where I knew about it, but didn't know when it activated, or if I would even know it was functioning. I'm sure I would have noticed the red H, but now I can also begin learning just how much of an incline it takes before it activates.

The VAP tune: I was under the impression that their tune improves trans performance in D, so it is very relevant.

I'm laughing about my error using inciteful instead of insightful. I'm well aware I have rubbed almost everyone the wrong way. Had I not framed my inquiry carefully to be only about D mode, I would apologize. But I did, and most everyone gave advice about manual mode. I expected better based on the quality of the threads I had read while researching V8Vs and SportShift2 transaxles. I have reset my expectations and promise not to get snarky when I get dumb suggestions.

 

All good then…moving forward…much great knowledge available here…it’s just we sometimes get distracted ..,and go off on tangents,,,I hope you figure it out quickly…would love to hear what the issue was..

 

The two or three incidents all occurred when I was driving through southern Oregon on I-5. The freeway goes through a seemingly un-ending series of small valleys. Lots of ups and downs and cars slowing as they climb up the next mountain. I believe there is a high probability it was the combination of being in D mode, using the cruise control (75 mph) while climbing (i.e. the cruise control was adding throttle) and me pushing on the accelerator because I wanted to go ~80 briefly to avoid coming up on a slow car at the same time a faster car would be catching me. The same amount of movement on the accelerator that only caused modest acceleration on level ground (i.e. all day the previous day while driving through California's Central Valley) caused the big downshift and hard acceleration when stacked on top of the cruise control adding throttle to maintain speed up the mountain.

Or put another way: operator error.

Had this happened in any other car, I wouldn't have been alarmed. Having read so many articles calling the SportShift the worst trans ever, I was quick to wonder if this was just another one of SportShift's poor behaviors.

 

It is certainly a new one on me…but an interesting aside..mine is un drivable in cruise downhill ..it hunts for the right speed..truly horrible…uphill isn’t an issue…but downhill..wow..any one else had this..

 

Are you in manual mode when it hunts? Some cruise controls on vehicles with automatic transmissions will downshift for more engine braking. My motorhome will do that and apply the exhaust brake. If in manual mode, the cruise control in your Vantage would be stuck in whatever gear you had selected. I wonder if it has authority to "tap" the anti-lock brake unit.

 

Am I maybe the only one who loves the SportShift II (7 speed)?

I think a lot of people criticize it without having tried it, or simply having just only tried the first SS, or even worst: repeating what they have read out there... Perhaps another reason is the snobbery of always defending manual transmission over automated manual transmission, just to appear more like pilots, experts, connoisseurs, purists... call it what you want.

The 7-speed SportShift II gearbox is perfectly suited to this car. It fits very well with the philosophy of this grand tourer.

ND: I attach a "V8 Vantage Sportshift Driving Guide" that I found on the Aston Martin "Global Dealer Training" website, where the Launch Control procedure is very interesting, but it is not mentioned in the Owner's Manual.

I guess this procedure is JUST VALID FOR SS I !!! Anyway, I would personally do not do it, to avoid break the LSD or the clutch. (https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...d-cracked.html)

Launch Control

To obtain the fastest possible acceleration away from standstill, the following parameters are required:
Transmission in “Sport” Paddle Shift Mode
Traction Control turned off (hold the DSC button for four seconds)
1st gear selected
Greater than 90% throttle applied in less than 0.5 seconds.

If these parameters are met the system will raise the engine rpm to 5,000rpm and close the clutch.
If these parameters are maintained the system will make an automated up-shift from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd at 7,100rpm. The remaining up-shifts will be made at 7,300rpm.
NOTE. Careful consideration needs to be given before using this technique because to de-activate Traction Control, DSC has been de-activated. Launch control is only optimised in high road grip situations. If the grip levels are reduced then arguably normal acceleration would be quicker because Traction Control is active.